“One of the finest and most original writers…and one of the greatest Polish writers of [the 20th] century. [Herbert] is a figure comparable to, say, T. S. Eliot or W. H. Auden.”
—Edward Hirsch, The New Yorker
Polish essayist, poet, and spiritual leader of his nation’s anti-Communist movement, the late Zbigniew Herbert is a literary giant whose writings are revered throughout Europe and the world. A companion volume to the author’s Collected Poems (Ecco 2007), Collected Prose is the only English language edition of the award-winning writer’s prose works collected in a single, beautiful, accessible volume—including in their entirety his renowned Labyrinth on the Sea, Still Life with a Bridle, King of the Ants, and Barbarian in the Garden.

The Collected Prose: 1948-1998

Arts & Photography

Herbert, Zbigniew

History & Criticism

Ecco

This outstanding new translation brings a uniformity of voice to Zbigniew Herbert's entire poetic output, from his first book of poems, String of Light, in 1956, to his final volume, previously unpublished in English, Epilogue Of the Storm. Collected Poems: 1956-1998, as Joseph Brodsky said of Herbert's SSelected Poems, is "bound for a much longer haul than any of us can anticipate." He continues, "For Zbigniew Herbert's poetry adds to the biography of civilization the sensibility of a man not defeated by the century that has been most thorough, most effective in dehumanization of the species. Herbert's irony, his austere reserve and his compassion, the lucidity of his lyricism, the intensity of his sentiment toward classical antiquity, are not just trappings of a modern poet, but the necessary armor—in his case well-tempered and shining indeed—for man not to be crushed by the onslaught of reality. By offering to his readers neither aesthetic nor ethical discount, this poet, in fact, saves them frorn that poverty which every form of human evil finds so congenial. As long as the species exists, this book will be timely."

The Collected Poems: 1956-1998

Literature & Fiction

United States

The King Of The Ants: Mythological Essays

Essays & Correspondence

Ecco Pr

Reconstruction of the Poet: Uncollected Works of Zbigniew Herbert

Dramas & Plays

Blessed is the nation that in the course of a century could give the world two poets of Czeslaw Milosz's and Zbigniew Herbert's scope. Doubly blessed is the English-reader, for in this volume he gets Zbigniew Herbert's work rendered by Czeslaw Milosz: like the poor, or better yet like nature herself, Polish genius takes care of its own.
This collection is bound for a much longer haul than any of us can anticipate. For Zbigniew Herbert's poetry adds to the biography of civilization the sensibility of a man not defeated by the century that has been most thorough, most effective in dehumanization of the species. Herbert's irony, his austere reserve and his compassion, the lucidity of his lyricism, the intensity of his sentiment toward classical antiquity, are not just trappings of a modern poet, but the necessary armor--in his case well-tempered and shining indeed--for man not to be crushed by the onslaught of reality. By offering to his readers neither aesthetic norethical discount, this poet, in fact, saves them frorn that poverty which every form of human eviI finds so congenial. As long as the species exists, this book will be timely.-- Joseph Brodsky

Selected poems

Poetry

Oxford University Press

Report from the Besieged City and Other Poems (Oxford Poets) (English and Polish Edition)

Oxford Univ. Pr.

This is the long-awaited translation of the volume Pan Cogito (Warsaw, 1974), now published in English translation as a full sequence of 40 poems for the first time. Writing of earlier volumes, the New Yorker said that `Herbert is one of the finest and most original writers of this century...a stubbornly idiosyncratic poet of isolation, disinheritance, and grief.' Mr Cogito acts as the award-winning poet's alibi, alias, persona, or as Seamus Heaney has said, `as a representative of the most courageous, well-disposed and unremittingly intelligent members of the species. This book is intended for admirers of Zbigniew Herbert; readers of poetry; libraries; universities.

Mr Cogito (Oxford Poets)

In Still Life with a Bridle, poet and essayist Zbigniew Herbert takes an intriguing look at the cultural, artisitic, and aesthetic legacy of 17th-century Holland. These sixteen essays reveal Herbert's discriminating artistic eye and poetic sensibility, one that revels in irony, humor, and a satirist's appreciation of the absurd. An inveterate museum-goer, he focuses on the art of the Dutch masters, using it as a stepping-off point for a thoroughly individual and entertaining examination of the foibles, genius, and character of the Dutch people as a whole. The result is an unorthodox and revealing glimpse into the past that gives us a keener understanding not only of a distant people, but of ourselves as well.

Still Life with a Bridle : Essays and Apocryphas

JONATHAN CAPE.

A comprehensive overview of renowned Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere’s work since 2014, inspired by the figure of the angel\nBelgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere has long been a leading light in the international contemporary art world whose sculptures, installations and drawings endeavor to find the meaning of humanity, physicality, suffering and vitality.\nConceived in the loneliness and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, this book explores De Bruyckere’s recent, never-before-seen work inspired by the figure of the angel as portrayed in myths, stories, literature and art history. According to De Bruyckere, an angel—with its warm, dark wings—provides protection, a refuge from fear. The angel guards against a lonely existence and, even more importantly, against a lonely death. It symbolizes the fragile line De Bruyckere treads between artistic poeticism and engagement with current affairs.\nThis volume will serve as an essential resource on an artist whose works constitute a provocative and influential addition to the contemporary art canon.\nDistributed for Mercatorfonds\nExhibition Schedule: Bonnefantenmuseum Maastrich, The Netherlands 
(March 29–September 26, 2021)

Berlinde De Bruyckere: Angel’s Throat

Huijts, Stijn

Mortier, Erwin

Mercatorfonds

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